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Obama: Troop surge toughest decision yet

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said deploying an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan was the toughest decision of his presidency.

"Absolutely," the president responded when asked on CBS's "60 Minutes" whether the decision was the most difficult.

In an interview that aired Sunday night, he recalled seeing wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, soldiers' flag-draped caskets returning to Dover Air Force Base, soldiers' gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery.

"And you see the sacrifices that young men and women and their families are making; there is nothing more profound," Obama said.

He called his announcing the troop surge at West Point Dec. 1 the "most emotional speech I've ever made."

"I was looking out over a group of cadets, some of whom were going to be deployed in Afghanistan," Obama said. "And potentially some might not come back. There is not a speech that I've made that hit me in the gut as much as that speech."

He defended making the decision to send the troops deliberately.

"There was no downside for us taking our time and making sure that we had a strategy that was workable and sustainable," he said. "And look, this is not something that we're starting from scratch. This is something that we're inheriting. We've been (in Afghanistan) for eight years. We also had, in the interim, an enormously costly war in Iraq."

The eight years of warfare cost thousands of American lives and more than $1 trillion, he said.

Obama called the lawless Afghanistan-Pakistan border region the "epicenter of violent extremism" directed at the West.

"This is where bin Laden is. ... Half of this territory is in Afghanistan, half of it is in Pakistan. Ultimately, in order for us to eradicate the problem, to really go after al-Qaida in an effective way, we are going to need more cooperation from Pakistan. There is no doubt about that."

Italian PM Berlusconi attacked at rally

ROME, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a broken nose and two broken teeth Sunday when he was hit with a statue during a Milan rally, police said.

An Italian bricklayer was charged with aggravated assault in the attack.

Berlusconi, 73, was struck by a plaster replica of Milan's cathedral allegedly thrown by northern Italian Massimo Tartaglia, 42, the BBC reported Sunday.

The suspect, who reportedly has a history of mental illness, managed to navigate through Berlusconi's body guards and aides. He threw the statue at Berlusconi as the prime minister was greeting supporters and signing autographs, police said.

Looking dazed, Berlusconi grimaced in pain and was put into a car and driven to the hospital.

"He remained calm and leaned out the window as he was being driven to the hospital and waved to the crowd," Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said.

Tartaglia told police he attacked the prime minister because he hated him, the BBC said.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported that Berlusconi said from a San Raffaele hospital: "I'm fine, I'm fine."

Senate OKs $1.1 trillion spending measure

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The Senate sent to President Barack Obama a $1.1 trillion spending measure that includes major funding increases for several agencies.

The omnibus bill, approved largely along party lines 57-35 Sunday, combines six appropriation measures to fund non-defense agencies through Sept. 30.

The measure includes some $600 million for mandatory spending on programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, CNN reported.

Republicans balked at what they called a measure bloated with wasteful spending.

"It is business as usual, spending money like a drunken sailor, and the bar is still open," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said, The Washington Post reported.

The nonpartisan group Taxpayers for Common Sense said the bill provides for 5,244 earmarks totaling about $4 billion.

The bill provides for terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay to be transferred by the government to the United States for trial. It also includes money for General Motors and Chrysler auto dealers shut down by company restructuring to present evidence allowing them to reopen.

Plane's crew to face weapons charges

BANGKOK, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- The crew of a cargo plane transporting a 40-ton cache of arms from North Korea will be charged in Thailand with possession of weapons of war, officials say.

The five-man crew -- four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus -- first claimed to not know they were carrying grenade launchers, rockets and other armaments when the plane was seized in Thailand, The New York Times reported Sunday.

After six hours of questioning by Thai officials, the crew members said they were to unload "the goods" in Sri Lanka and the Middle East on their return flight to the Ukraine, the Bangkok Post said. The Post reported the confiscated "goods" were made by a Korean-owned company.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told The Times of London: "They committed two crimes. Firstly, they gave false information about their cargo, and secondly that cargo was found to be weapons."

The Russian-made Ilyushin 76 plane, registered in Georgia, had come through Bangkok twice, going to and coming from North Korea, The New York Times said.

American authorities allegedly tipped off Thai officials that the aircraft might be carrying contraband, a violation of United Nation Resolution 1874, which is, in essence, an arms embargo against North Korea.

Thai authorities seized the cargo and arrested the crew late Friday after the plane landed and was examined on the tarmac at Bangkok's Don Muang airport, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A court date has not been set.

U.S.: Iran nuke offer doesn't comply

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- An Iranian proposal to swap low-enriched uranium for nuclear research reactor fuel isn't in accordance with an international agreement, a U.S. official says.

Citing an unnamed senior State Department official, CNN reported Sunday that the proposal, made this weekend in Bahrain by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, doesn't line up with a draft agreement from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Mottaki said Saturday that Iran was willing to exchange 400 kilograms of 3.5 percent-enriched uranium for 20 percent-enriched fuel for use in a medical research reactor. The IAEA, backed by the so-called "P5plus1" -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- has urged that Iran send its low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing to allay fears it is attempting to develop nuclear weapons, which use highly enriched uranium.

"The terms of that agreement call for Iran to send 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Russia in one batch, where it would be further enriched and then sent to France for fabrication into fuel assemblies," the official said. "We remain committed to these terms. Unfortunately, Iran has been unwilling to engage in further talks on its nuclear program."